Hal Helms On Web Development - Software Development

Ready to Learn Ruby on Rails?

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:27:00 -0400

I've heard from quite a few programmers who are interested in putting their toe in the RoR waters. It is a big step -- and to make that as non-stressful as possible, I'm going to hold a free two-hour online "Intro to Ruby on Rails for ColdFusion Programmers" training on September 22 from 12.30 to 2.30 Eastern US time. [More]

Working Off the Clock

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:50:00 -0400

Recently, I read Ben Nadel's post of his thoughts stimulated by a book that we both seem to be reading, Drive by Daniel Pink. Ben is thinking about the best way of compensating workers. It's a great read with lots of comments. It reminded me of how I stumbled into something that I had pretty much forgotten about -- and I wonder if it would work in a different context. [More]

What We Can All Learn From Ben Nadel

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:36:00 -0400

Most of you will be familiar with blogger extraordinaire Ben Nadel. Ben recently posted about a fundamental misunderstanding he had about jQuery event objects. There's something very important to be learned about how Ben approaches problems. [More]

The Pre Post-Mortem

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:26:00 -0400

For an upcoming, large job, I did a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats". It's a formalized way of assessing both the business opportunity and one's abilities to leverage the opportunity. (Sorry for the market-speak...) SWOT is helpful in thinking realistically about one's strengths and weaknesses -- and it is a more formal way of doing something that I've undertaken for years with clients: the pre post-mortem. [More]

Why You Should Ignore Google's Interview Questions

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:28:00 -0400

A recent article in "The Business Insider" here reveals some of the questions Google uses to interview applicants. Google's smart, right? So, we should emulate Google? [More]

I'd Rather Feel Right Than Be Right

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:29:00 -0400

Recently, I was reading a post about how Perl blew it (here-- and why it's lost its viability as a web language for new projects. Many of the comments were savage in their response. Yet, ask any non-Perl person and I think they'd agree that Perl no longer has the luster for writing web apps it once did. Given that, why the extreme reaction to what seems a fairly obvious point? [More]

Team Development

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:58:00 -0400

I spoke with a friend recently who told me that his company had just hired another programmer to keep up with the work. Good problem. Bad solution. [More]

Regression to the Mean...Spirited

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:44:00 -0400

Malcolm Gladwell is a fabulously successful journalist. He's written blockbuster books: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What The Dog Saw. I find them both interesting and entertaining. Gladwell delivers a product that provides value and he's reaped the appropriate rewards. A heartwarming tale of success, no? Not so fast, grasshopper... [More]

So...ColdFusion is Dead, Right?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:27:00 -0400

Since I announced that I was going to do future development with Ruby on Rails, I've received some email asking "Is ColdFusion really dead then?" CF developers have been hearing this for years, but I started thinking about the question itself. [More]

Why I'm Moving to Ruby On Rails

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:25:00 -0400

Well, this is a hard post to write. After months of investigating, soul-searching, and examining, I've decided to move future application development to Ruby On Rails. [More]

No, THIS is the Right Way to do it

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:29:00 -0400

Al: Agile development rocks. Bob: No way. Agile sucks. while 1 == 1{ Al: Rocks Bob: Sucks } Poor Al. Poor Bob. Poor us. Now, this isn't a post about how wonderful Agile is or how bad it is. It's not really a post about Agile at all. [More]

Glad THAT's Over, But ...

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:36:00 -0400

Well, I finished that monster prototype, with much credit to my coding partner, Maciej. I figured that over 11 days, I worked 165 hours. Whew! Yesterday, we gave the presentation to a large multi-national corporation. To my relief and gratification, they were very impressed. Which leaves me, now, with only one small problem... [More]

The Fetish of Free

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:50:00 -0400

fetish: \�fe-tish 1a: a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence. 1b: an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion I just finished reading Chris Anderson's book, Free: The History of a Radical Price. It's quite good. While listening to the book (it's available...for free...at audible.com), I couldn't shake the sense that, for many, "free" software has become a fetish, to the great harm of us all. [More]

Concluding an Experiment on Pair-Programming

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:08:00 -0400

Over the last eight days, my colleague, Maciej, and I conducted an experiment in pair-programming. The experiment was inspired by a terrific piece on pair-programming by a highly-respected Java guru, Elliott Rusty Harold. (You can find his article here.) I've done pair-programming in the past, but never rigorously and so wasn't sure whether my affinity for it was justified. Today we concluded the experiment and discussed what we thought of it. [More]

Dancing With the Devil: A First Meeting with a New Client

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:54:00 -0400

"We have a 3.00 at Maduro's with a new prospect for a big job," my partner told me recently. The word, "Maduro's" caught my attention: it's a cigar bar just minutes away from our office. I get to do a sales call while smoking cigars? Cool! [More]